BAGHDAD: Iraqi President Abdullatif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani have launched separate appeals against a supreme court decision to render an agreement regulating navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway between Baghdad and Kuwait as unconstitutional.

The appeal by the Iraqi government urges the court to scrap the ruling and restore the more than a decade-old maritime agreement between the Gulf Arab neighbors, a source familiar with the matter told KUNA, citing a personal request by the Iraqi president. In his appeal, Rashid said that the measure is backed by relevant international laws and conventions, in addition to the constitution’s support for the principle of “good neighborliness” and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

Similarly, the Iraqi premier referred to the Vienna Convention of the law of treaties, which sets a framework for stability in relations between states, while also prohibiting member countries from citing “internal laws as justification for violating the convention”, he underlined. In his view, the supreme court’s ruling to nullify the Khor Abdullah waterway agreement contravenes an Iraqi constitutional clause that requires Baghdad to fully adhere to international laws and principles dealing with neighborly relations.

He went on to explain that the Khor Abdullah agreement is not a border demarcation deal, rather, it aims to regulate maritime navigation in the waterway that links both neighbors, describing the matter as highly significant. In Sept 2023, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ruled that a bilateral agreement regulating navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway was unconstitutional, a decision Kuwait said contained “historical fallacies”. — KUNA